Wilcon decides that this is the moment to show his quick observation skills in the helms seat.
I think I know how the damage to ship happened, sir. When some of the fleet ships went into the nebulae around the anomaly and used their warp drives there was significant sudden damage to the warp drive, impulse engine, and some other systems around those areas, including the sensor array. Some of the other ships that went in experienced more damage than the Excalibur, some with temporary total ship system failure. The effects were mostly stopped by only using impulse while inside the nebulae, I guess the interaction between the active warp field and the clouds amplified the effects of the radiation coming from the anomaly and focused it into the warp drive and surrounding systems. Of course this is just my best guess from observation, as far as I know command hasn’t sent a dedicated science team to research and test the anomaly and it’s effect.
//Intuitive science galore.